Volume 220 Issue 2, 22 January 2016
'TOOTH FAIRY' TRADITIONS SERIES: TREES
The cover series for volume 220 of the British Dental Journal features original paintings by English artist Thomas Allen which explore the many different 'tooth fairy' traditions around the world.
This issue's cover represents the traditions involving a tree. In North America, among the Yellowknife Dene, children's milk teeth are taken by their mother or grandmother and put in a tree. The family then dances around the tree together in the belief that the ritual will ensure that the child's permanent tooth will grow as straight as the tree. Among the Navajo, the childs mother takes the tooth and they go together in a southeasterly direction away from their house, in search of a healthy young sagebrush, rabbitbrush, or pinyon tree. When they find one, they bury the tooth on the east side of the tree because east is associated with childhood (probably because the sun rises in the east and so is associated with beginnings). In Australia, Aboriginal families help the child to put their tooth inside the shoot of a pandanus plant. When the plant grows, so will their new tooth. It is believed that there are spirits in the pandanus leaves that will look after the child as their new tooth is growing.
Painting by Thomas Allen
Website: www.thomasallen.uk.com
Editorial
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